Laugh Lines
Caricaturing Painting in Nineteenth-Century France
Published on 11. July 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-350-18689-7 (ISBN)
Description
This is the first book length study of Salon caricature, a widespread genre of press illustration that flourished in Paris in the second half of the 19th century. Salon caricature began with a few tentative lithographs in the 1840s and, within a few decades, no Parisian exhibition could open without appearing in warped, incisive, and hilarious miniature in the pages of the illustrated press.
Supported by ample primary sources, from Baudelaire and Champfleury, to Grand-Carteret and Duret, as well as archival material made available here for the first time, Laugh Lines explores not only 19th-century caricature but a larger history of reproductive image technologies, including photography, and their relation to painting during the period of modernist emergence.
In bringing to light this rich register of art criticism-in-pictures, Laugh Lines offers new material and methods for the study of 19th-century painting, modernism, and art historiography, notably repositioning Edouard Manet in relation to public laughter and comic press art. More generally, Langbein draws back the curtain on a robust culture of comedy around fine art and its reception in 19th-century France, one in which artists of every stripe, including the most sentimental or conservative, were ripe to be made hilarious.
Supported by ample primary sources, from Baudelaire and Champfleury, to Grand-Carteret and Duret, as well as archival material made available here for the first time, Laugh Lines explores not only 19th-century caricature but a larger history of reproductive image technologies, including photography, and their relation to painting during the period of modernist emergence.
In bringing to light this rich register of art criticism-in-pictures, Laugh Lines offers new material and methods for the study of 19th-century painting, modernism, and art historiography, notably repositioning Edouard Manet in relation to public laughter and comic press art. More generally, Langbein draws back the curtain on a robust culture of comedy around fine art and its reception in 19th-century France, one in which artists of every stripe, including the most sentimental or conservative, were ripe to be made hilarious.
Reviews / Votes
Widely researched, and lavishly illustrated, Laugh Lines makes both a challenging and inspirational reading. Supported by ample studies of the abundant primary sources, the book straddles several areas: reproductive technologies, the practices of physiognomy, photography, and Salon history. * Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, Journal of Art Historiography * Laugh Lines makes a significant contribution to our understanding of cultural and artistic changes in France from the 1840s to 1880s. It offers an important corrective to the historiography on caricature and modernist painting, and illuminates shifting relations between visual art, literature, and journalism. * Jillian Lerner, Instructor in Media History, Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Canada * In this enthralling study of nineteenth-century Salon caricature, distinctive but neglected artists like Bertall and Cham benefit from being compared with Daumier and Nadar in a wide-ranging historical analysis which explores the extensive variety of printmaking techniques available at the time. * Stephen Bann, Emeritus Professor of History of Art, Bristol University, UK * Julia Langbein's engaging and impeccably researched volume enriches our comprehension of the spatial and social dynamics of Salon spectatorship. It will become required reading for anyone interested in art headquartered in nineteenth-century Paris. * Hollis Clayson, Bergen Evans Professor Emerita in the Humanities and Professor Emerita of Art History, Northwestern University, USA *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
43 colour and 46 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-18689-7 (9781350186897)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€28.49
Available for download
E-Book
02/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€28.49
Available for download
Person
Julia Langbein is an art historian specializing in nineteenth-century French visual culture.
Content
Introduction
1. Comic Reproduction in July Monarchy Paris
2. Dueling and Doubling: The Antagonism of Salon Caricature (1843-1852)
3. Physiognomy and Salon Caricature's Comic Perception
4. Salon Caricature and Reproductive Etching: The Critical Picture in the Age of Photography
5. Gravity and Graphic Medium in Cham and Daumier
6. Caricature and Comic Spectacle at the Paris Salon (1852-1881)
7. Salon Caricature, Public Laughter and the Making of Manet
Index
1. Comic Reproduction in July Monarchy Paris
2. Dueling and Doubling: The Antagonism of Salon Caricature (1843-1852)
3. Physiognomy and Salon Caricature's Comic Perception
4. Salon Caricature and Reproductive Etching: The Critical Picture in the Age of Photography
5. Gravity and Graphic Medium in Cham and Daumier
6. Caricature and Comic Spectacle at the Paris Salon (1852-1881)
7. Salon Caricature, Public Laughter and the Making of Manet
Index